Field
The invention relates to robotic sensing systems and methods of controlling and operating the robotic sensing systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for tactile sensing.
Description of the Related Art
With the increasing popularity of robotic devices in industrial and personal use applications, sensing the surrounding environment has become ever important. Many robotic devices generally interact with objects in their surrounding environment. If the robotic devices contact these objects in an improper manner, the robotic device and/or the object can be damaged or broken. For example, if a robotic device grabs a glass too quickly, the glass may break. Therefore, it is ideal for robotic devices to detect an object before the object comes into contact with the robotic device. This early or prior detection allows the robotic device to anticipate the impending contact and have additional time to react to the object.
Furthermore, traditional sensing systems of robotic devices that have the capability of sensing an object near a robotic device are expensive, bulky and complex. In certain applications, robotic devices have relatively large surface areas that may be exposed to an impending contact. Placement of numerous expensive sensors over the surface areas is cost-prohibitive and not feasible. In addition, when each sensor generates a different set of data, analysis and processing of such a large collection of data becomes overly complex and cause significant time delays.
Hence, there is a need in the art for an accurate and efficient, yet cost-effective and non-complex, object sensing solution to acquire a general tactile understanding of relatively large surface areas of the robotic device that are expected to contact an object. Furthermore, there is a need for an object sensing solution that simplifies tactile data sensing and analysis in order to allow the robotic device to react quickly and in real-time to the impending contact.